


Poison Running Through My Veins (I Don't Wanna Break These Chains)

by River9Noble



Series: BatLantern Week 2021 [5]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, Green Lantern - All Media Types
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, BatLantern Week 2k21, Batlantern - Freeform, Breaking Up & Making Up, M/M, Parenthood, Sickfic, bruhal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-11
Updated: 2021-03-11
Packaged: 2021-03-18 11:48:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,687
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29982405
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/River9Noble/pseuds/River9Noble
Summary: Is there anything worse than getting divorced? Well, maybe being forced to see your soon-to-be-ex-husband because your kid is sick.(BatLantern Week 2k21 - Day 5 - Co-parenting)
Relationships: Hal Jordan/Bruce Wayne
Series: BatLantern Week 2021 [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2198925
Comments: 24
Kudos: 86
Collections: Batlantern Week, Queer Characters Collection





	Poison Running Through My Veins (I Don't Wanna Break These Chains)

**Author's Note:**

> Buckle up, y'all. This one's angsty. (I spoiled you with all that fluff on the earlier prompts XD) 
> 
> It does have a happy ending though, because I'm not completely evil (j/k it's because I would break down sobbing otherwise.) 
> 
> BatLantern Week 2k21 Day 5: **Co-Parenting** || Date Night

"Hey, ba- um, hey," Hal said, his voice changing from happy surprise to embarrassment in an instant when he answered the phone call at ten p.m.

"Hal," Spooky said awkwardly after a slight pause. "Damian just came down with a nasty stomach bug," he said. "Alfred offered to sit with him while I patrol, but I'd rather not expose him to the germs at his age, and I was wondering …"

"Yeah," Hal said immediately, swallowing down his disappointment. "Yeah, of course. I'll be right over."

Another pause.

"Thank you," his husband said stiffly.

* * *

"Hey, buddy," Hal said softly when he walked into Damian's bedroom twenty minutes later, after having been met by an apologetic Alfred in the foyer, who Hal had reassured that senior citizenry and stomach bugs don't mix.

"Baba," Damian said weakly, and oh, fuck, he looked almost as green as Hal's ring.

Bruce was sitting in a chair by his bed, at least, Hal noted with an internal sigh. That was something, he supposed. Any emotion his husband's eyes might have held was heavily shielded, of course, behind the damn impassive stare that met Hal's eyes.

"Thank you for coming," Spooky said as formally as if they were strangers.

Hal looked away and nodded, because he wasn't Bats, ok? There was no way he could hide his pain at seeing his husband face to face for the first time in two months.

"How you feeling, buddy?" he asked Damian, choosing to focus on their son instead.

"Awful," Damian muttered, clutching his bucket, and Titus whined in sympathy and thumped his tail on the bed. "Kill me now, please, baba."

"No, kiddo, can't do that," Hal said sympathetically as he climbed in bed next to Damian and ran a hand through the sweaty hair clinging to his forehead. "But I'm gonna stay right here with you, ok?" he said, a small smile tugging at his lips when Alfred the Cat nudged his hand for his head rub, too.

Damian gave a weak little nod and Bruce cleared his throat.

"I'll come check on you when I get home from patrol," he said, before bending down to kiss Damian's forehead.

"Ok," Damian muttered.

Bruce left the room without a second glance for Hal.

Hal fought back his sigh, because he didn't want Damian feeling any more cut up about his fathers' impending divorce than he already was. Like the kid wasn't suffering enough at the moment.

Beside him, Damian stiffened and gripped his bucket tighter and threw up again, causing Alfred to exit the bed in a panicked run, although Titus stayed right by his tiny master's feet. Damian's groan of misery wrenched Hal's heart, because normally his kid was tougher than nails and scorned signs of weakness.

Hal rubbed his little boy's back until he was sure Damian was done. Bruce had actually had the good sense to put a packet of wet wipes next to the bed as well as a bottle of mouth wash, so Hal got up and helped Damian wipe his face and rinse his mouth out before taking the bucket to the bathroom to clean it out.

Damian's eyes were sad when Hal returned.

"I miss you," he said miserably. Tears filled Hal's eyes.

"I miss you, too, buddy," he said. "It'll be your week to stay with me in a couple days, though," he said.

"It is not the same," Damian muttered, "and you know it."

"I know," Hal quietly acknowledged, because it wasn't the same. It was awful. It was his worst nightmare come true, that he and Spooky were splitting up. Had split up. Had split Hal's heart in two.

But it took two people to save a marriage, and Spooky had checked out and then forced the situation until moving out was the only bearable option left for Hal. Damn bastard. When Bats made up his mind to do something, he did it, Hal thought bitterly - whether it was finally bridging their bickering and bringing them together in the first place or then wrecking their marriage - and Hal was so tired and hurt and angry that his bones ached.

"Here, lay back," Hal said, placing a cold wet washcloth underneath Damian's neck and then a second one on his forehead.

"That feels nice," Damian murmured in surprise.

"My mom used to do that for me when I was sick," Hal said softly. Before she turned and hated him, too. Well, they say history repeats itself, Hal thought morosely.

Damian had thrown up several more times before finally drifting off to sleep not long before Bruce made it back from patrol. Hal put a finger on his lips when Spooky reappeared in the bedroom doorway, in sweats and carrying a container of Pedialyte, not that Hal needed to shush the Bat, he supposed.

"How is he?" Bruce said quietly after placing the drink on the bedside table and taking the chair closest to Hal's side of the bed. Which was only so he could whisper and meant nothing else, Hal was quite sure. Unfortunately.

"Still throwing up a lot," Hal whispered back. "Only fell asleep about twenty minutes ago."

Spooky grunted and Hal's heart hurt, seeing the tender concern that Bats was finally allowing to paint his face when he looked at his son. Their son. Dammit, Hal didn't want to start crying, he didn't - couldn't he at least salvage some of his dignity? But a sniff escaped and Spooky heard it. Of course.

"Hal?" Spooky said, raising an eyebrow. God. Kill him now.

"It's nothing," Hal muttered, wiping his nose on his arm. Spooky frowned.

"Most stomach bugs resolve within twenty-four hours," he said, "and it's not advisable to start liquids until he's gone an hour without vomiting, but Damian's not showing signs of serious dehydration yet, and -"

"Dammit, Spooky, I still love you!" Hal burst out in a quiet eruption of frustration. "Ok? There. I said it. I still love you and I fucking hate you for ripping us apart," he said, feeling his throat clog with more tears.

Spooky's startled gaze met his eyes and then all hopes of dignity were gone, because a tiny sob escaped Hal's chest, followed by an army of tears rolling down his face as he shook silently, valiantly trying not to wake Damian up.

Across from him, Spooky swallowed.

"You were unhappy," he finally said uncomfortably.

"Because you'd shut me out for weeks at a time!" Hal snapped back in a vicious whisper. "Just because you're Spooky doesn't mean it's fair for me to be married to a ghost! I missed you!" Hal whisper shouted. "Even if you'd paid a fraction of as much attention to me as you pay to one of your damn cases -" he said, pausing as he choked on another sob.

Bats was silent.

"And every time I tried to talk to you about it," Hal went on angrily, "you'd get nasty and mean and then you'd pull back even farther. Of course I was unhappy," Hal snapped. "But you could have fixed it."

Spooky looked down at the ground.

"I'm an obsessive person," he finally said quietly.

"No, shit," Hal said angrily. "But if you loved me, why couldn't you have obsessed over _me_?" he said, his voice cracking at the end. "I always came last with you," he muttered. "Not even last," he added. "Not at all."

"I'm sorry," his husband finally said to the floor after a long minute went by.

"Are you?" Hal said tiredly. "Sorry enough to fix it? Or are you apologizing for breaking my heart because you're too selfish to work on yourself? Because those are two different things -"

He stopped when Spooky reached out and gripped his hand tightly.

"I don't know how to fix it," Bats said in a tight voice. "I never did."

"Fuck, Spooky," Hal said in exasperation. "I had plenty of ideas, but you never wanted to listen. Because God forbid Hal Jordan knows something Batman doesn't -"

"Hal Wayne," Bats interrupted him. Hal stared at him and saw the desperate plea in his still-husband's eyes.

"If I _am_ Hal Wayne to you," Hal said slowly and deliberately, "you're damn well going to have to treat me like it. Not like one of your kids, or your colleagues or sidekicks or subordinates, or like fucking Hal Jordan who you can't stand and whose every suggestion you automatically reject."

"Will you stay?" Spooky whispered, his eyes filling with tears.

"Will you change?" Hal said. "And get some goddamn counseling for once in your life?"

"I - ok - yes," Bruce said, his shoulders slumping. "Yes."

"Yes?" Hal said, leaning forward. "Couples counseling with me and individual therapy for you?"

"Ok," Spooky said miserably, twisting in his seat.

"And follow their advice?" Hal persisted. "Because if you don't try to make it work, it won't."

"It was never that I didn't want to change," Spooky said guiltily, wiping his eyes with his free hand. "I hated myself for hurting you. But I always hurt people," he said in frustration, "and why would you be the one to stay when I've managed to drive everyone else in my life away?"

"Because I'm your husband," Hal said in shock. "Because I love you, you idiot. Because I think you're worth going through some rough patches with. Because I think we can fix this."

And then it was Spooky's eyes who were overflowing with tears, and his shoulders silently shaking, and Hal was pulling his husband over into bed with him and holding him in his arms while he cried into his chest.

It took forever for his father and baba to fall asleep, Damian internally groaned to himself from beside them. If only they would have shut up instead of whispering to each other back and forth and giving each other little disgusting pecks on the lips and cheeks while they stayed determinedly in his room to watch over him because he was sick.

Of course he was sick. Poison had that effect, Damian thought, as he finally uncorked the antidote and swallowed it in relief.

_The End_

**Author's Note:**

> !!!!!
> 
> Thanks for reading! Comments are much appreciated!
> 
> Stay tuned for ONLY TWO more BatLantern Week stories, posting every day this week! Ahhhhh so sad we're almost done! BatLantern is an addiction that has gotten deep under my skin though (as is Hal) so I'll be writing plenty more for them in the future. 
> 
> You can check out the other event fics on the AO3 collection Batlanternweek2k21 and on Tumblr @Batlanternweek2k21
> 
> And, you can follow me on Tumblr as @River9Noble. Come say hi!


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